What is the setting of "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

Bradbury's story is set in an empty house. All the humans who once lived in it have been killed, but the house, which behaves almost as a human character, continues functioning as if the owners are still alive. The story takes us in detail through all the activities the house goes through during the day. Its clock sings out the time and tells the occupants to get up, its stove makes a breakfast of eggs and bacon, and the kitchen ceiling, which keeps the calendar, notes what bills are due to be paid.

Outside, the garden sprinklers come on, having no way to register the imprints of the family members, images in white against the blackened house exterior. The reader realizes what the house cannot, that the family—and the entire society—have apparently been suddenly incinerated in a nuclear attack.

Although the house does the work traditionally done by human servants and imitates a living, breathing, thinking creature, the absence of any humans shows just how rigid and sterile the technology operating the house is. The house really can't think, and in the end, is destroyed by fire. By showing the limitations in the technology of the high-tech house, Bradbury shows how limited technology in general really is, suggesting we should not put too much faith in it.

What is the setting of "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

Ray Bradbury's setting of place and time in his story of the same title as Teasdale's poem is a house in the post-apocalyptic year 2026. In fact, this setting is so important that it actually becomes the central character of the story that effectively conveys the theme of Bradbury's narrative; namely, that while technology can provide many conveniences, it can equally be a destructive force. It is this contrast that the house, which continues to attend to the lives of it occupants by announcing the time, letting in the dog, sweeping the floor, reading aloud poetry and preparing meals despite the absence of the family who lives there, has itself become a victim of technology.

Moreover, it is Nature that proves itself more powerful in the end. The humans have destroyed themselves, leaving Nature to burn the house and silence the voices inside the house. Finally there come the "soft rains" to put out the remaining fire, and the birds who will not mind "If mankind perished utterly" sing as though nothing has occurred; nature endures.

What is the setting of "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

In the case of "There Will Come Soft Rains," the short story's entire plot is shaped by its setting. In it, Bradbury depicts an automated house in the aftermath of nuclear annihilation, with the family that resided within that house long deceased.

For the house, the date of August 4, 2026 is much the same as any other day in its existence. The house continues to adhere to its programmed routine, even in the absence of human beings. However, as the story eventually reveals, this day will be its last, as it is consumed in a fire. By the story's end, all that remains is a solitary wall.

With this particular story, I think you can even go so far as to argue that the setting and the plot are one in the same. Ultimately, the story, when seen as a whole, revolves around its vivid depiction of a post-human world. In this sense, the real story of "There Will Come Soft Rains" concerns the devastating consequences of the use of nuclear weapons (and the aftermath that follows). This deeper story is conveyed primarily through its setting and the imagery that setting contains.

What is ordinary about the setting in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

Although this story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where the year is 2026, there are some parts of the setting that you would recognize.

The story takes place in Allendale, California, on August 4.  There is no official town called Allendale, although it is a neighborhood of Oakland, California.  California certainly exists and August is the name of a month we still use.

Although many of the house’s features are automated, they are things that are recognizable elements of our own setting.  The alarm clock may talk, but we all have alarm clocks.  The house talks about birthdays, which we celebrate.  They still celebrate them in 2026.  This house also makes a breakfast that we would recognize.

In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunnyside up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk.

No, our houses do not make us breakfast (except for automatic coffee pots on timers), but the breakfast itself is part of the setting of many American homes.  We also have automatic garage door openers and automatic sprinklers in many of our homes.  Unfortunately, this family did not have anyone to get in the car, because they had been reduced to spots of paint by the nuclear blast.

The garden sprinklers whirled up in golden founts, filling the soft morning air with scatterings of brightness. The water pelted windowpanes, running down the charred west side where the house had been burned evenly free of its white paint.

Even though the people are gone, the house is still taking care of itself, because everything is automated.  This is not that different.  If we set something on automatic in our world, it will keep going until we turn it off or it runs out.

Although most of the other elements of the house are similar to things you would find in our houses, they have an advanced nature to them.  The nursery is highly technical, with giant video screens.  It reads you poetry.  The house uses highly technical means to put out the fire.  All in all though, it is just like one of our houses, just with more advanced technology.

The lesson here is that if we keep automating everything, we may eventually destroy ourselves.  The house does not need the people to keep going.  It runs on technology, but technology made the bomb too.